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One in 99 Americans Behind Bars
2008-02-29 14:56:00
AlterNet According to a new study from Pew, 1 in 99 American adults are currently in jail. From the New York Times article on the report: For the first time in the nation's history, more than one in 100 American adults is behind bars, according to a new report. Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million. Another 723,000 people are in local jails. The number of American adults is about 230 million, meaning that one in every 99.1 adults is behind bars. Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34. Military spending and incarceration rates are also both cornerstones of the booming Republican public sector economy: In 2007, according to the National Association of State Budgeting Officers, states spent $44 billion in tax dollars on corrections. Th...
More About: Bars , Class Warfare , Americans

The Ethnology of a Chicago Gang
2008-02-28 05:28:00
I have a new theory. Dirty money is spread so wide and deep that perhaps most of the wealthy families in this world started out in the underground economy, like drug and human trafficking. That would certainly explain the Kennedy's, Bush and the EU willing to look the other way in Kosovo where a gangster is running the government, and the history of the Iran Contra as well as seeding the start of Osama's Islamic jihad against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan funded by Reagan and the Saudi family. Here is a book review about a Chicago gangster that offers some confirmation of what I'm suspecting. Salon Books None of Robert Taylor residents really liked the gang, but it evolved to serve a purpose: As is often the case when civil order breaks down -- whether it happens in Afghanistan, Somalia or the South Side of Chicago -- strongmen emerge to provide security, at a cost. On the other hand, at least the residents of Robert Taylor knew exactly what they were getting for their "taxes...
More About: Gang , Class Warfare

Court Attacks Free Speech
2008-02-27 15:57:00
Los Angeles Times A coalition of media and public interest organizations went to federal court in San Francisco on Tuesday urging a judge to reconsider his order to shut down a muckraking website that publishes leaked documents from businesses and government agencies worldwide. Lawyers for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, Public Citizen and several news organizations, told U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White that two orders he issued last week against wikileaks.org were prior restraints that violated the 1st Amendment. Laura Handman, a Washington, D.C., attorney for the news organizations, said White's order was so expansive that the only way to describe it was as if a judge had shut down a newspaper because of controversy over one article. "I can't think of another injunction that was so broad," said Matt Zimmerman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil rights group that focuses on digital issues. White acted in response to a laws...
More About: Free , Freedom of Speech , Free Speech , Attacks , Court

Turkish Invasion of Iraq Threatens to Escalate to Full Scale
2008-02-27 05:21:00
The Iraq i Government finally acknowledges the Turkish invasion. The Iraqi Cabinet condemned the Turkish military incursion in northern Iraq as a "violation" of its "sovereignty". Meanwhile, the Kurds are rattling sabres and may be preparing a counter-attack which will clearly provoke a massive Turkish response. The Turks have massed over 140,000 troops near the border, as many troups as the US had before the surge. Harpers ?The bombings are continuing by land and by air; the clashes are becoming heavier.? This was a Turkish military source quoted in a story today in the Guardian, referring to his country?s incursions into northern Iraq yesterday to pursue militants from the Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK). Hundreds of soldiers and rebel troops have died since fighting began last week. (I previously discussed last December?s attack by Turkey into Kurdistan.) The Turkish offensive, which has been green-lighted by the Bush Administration, was criticized by the Iraqi government. ?We...
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Russian FM warns NATO, EU mission not to use force against Serbs in Kosovo
2008-02-25 20:13:00
The Russian s seem to be trying to provoke a run on the border between Kosovo and Serbia. Warning the Kosovar Serbs that NATO might block their escape will inevitably increase those seeking to escape. That can only serve a plan to start a guerrilla war. International Herald Tribune Russia's foreign minister claimed in remarks broadcast Monday that NATO and the EU have been considering using force to keep Serbs from leaving Kosovo following its declaration of independence. Sergey Lavrov, in an interview on state-run Vesti-24 television, said that would undermine security in the Balkans and Europe. Lavrov suggested that the EU's police and justice mission was seeking help from NATO forces to ease its deployment in Serb-populated northern Kosovo and to keep Serbs in the region. "We have information that the EU mission, attempting to deploy in Serb enclaves ? and the Serbs do not want this ? is trying to draw the NATO forces for Kosovo onto its side," he said. He added that "th...
More About: Force , Nato , Mission

The Ballot or the Bullet
2008-02-25 17:10:00
The Black World Today We don?t know what Barack will do [if elected President], but he has presented some thoughts which would mean some change in the ugliness of the policies of this country. He hasn?t spelled out an anti-poverty program like the one proposed by Martin Luther King, a program of full employment, guaranteed annual income, and 100,000 units of affordable housing each year. But he has spoken out about Social Security reform that rejects privatization and raises the income cap for imposition of the FICA tax, a move that would secure Social Security for decades to come. Obama speaks of removing tax credits for those companies that send our jobs overseas. He speaks of raising taxes on those who make more than $250,000 annually, and eliminating taxes for seniors who make less than $50,000 a year. Of course, he promises to end the war in Iraq, and bring the troops home by the end of 2009. His foreign policy includes diplomatic overtures to Venezuela, Iran, and Cuba. Do...
More About: Election , Discrimination , Bullet , Ballot

Women and children in Gaza form human chain
2008-02-25 15:36:00
Times Online Thousands of Palestinians protesting against an international blockade on the Gaza Strip formed a human chain today, with Israel warning of an iron-fisted response if demonstrators tried to storm the country's border. Men, women and children holding both Palestinian and Hamas flags turned out for the start of what organisers linked to the ruling Hamas movement claimed would be a peaceful protest eventually involving some 50,000 people. The organisers said that the human chain - designed to link a 25-mile stretch of the main road traversing the centre of the coastal strip between the towns of Rafah and Beit Hanoun - would be designed to show up the plight of Gaza residents to the international community. Schools were closed for the day, and thousands of pupils were taken in buses to participate. Many could be seen with banners stating: "The Siege of Gaza Will Only Strengthen Us, "The World Has Condemned Gaza to Death" and "Save Gaza". The international community ha...
More About: Women , Children , Human , Palestine

President Pervez Musharraf May Stepdown
2008-02-24 07:46:00
The Hindu News Having apparently run out of options, Pakistan 's beleaguered President Pervez Musharraf "is considering stepping down in days" to avoid a showdown with the newly elected Parliament in that country. "He (Musharraf) has already started discussing the exit strategy for himself. I think it is now just a matter of days and not months because he would like to make a graceful exit on a high," 'The Sunday Telegraph' quoted one of the President's close confidantes as saying. According to senior aides, Musharraf would prefer to resign rather than waiting to be impeached and forced out of office by the victorious opposition parties who triumphed in last week's general election in that country and announced they would form a coalition government. "He may have made many mistakes, but he genuinely tried to build the country and he doesn't want to destroy it just for the sake of his personal office," an unnamed official close to the President told the British newspaper. M...
More About: Pervez Musharraf , President Pervez Musharraf

Putin Warns West Over Kosovo Dispute
2008-02-23 04:20:00
The Russia n are announcing a full return to the cold and sometimes neighboring hot wars in it's now shrunken sphere of influence. Putin is warning that Russia will consider an military option in dealing with it's immediate neighbors, not Kosovo . I believe he's also saying, if he had it to do again, he would have moved several divisions of the Russian Army into Serbia to prevent the secession of Kosovo. I don't believe he's threaten a war, but he is signaling a renewed arms race, one that oil rich Russia just might win. The Associated Press Putin used the meeting of presidents from the Commonwealth of Independent States ? a loose, Russian-dominated organization of former Soviet states ? to lambast West ern nations that have recognized Kosovo's independence. Among those are the United States, Britain, Germany and France. "The Kosovo precedent is a terrifying precedent. It in essence is breaking open the entire system of international relations that have prevailed not just for ...
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The Kurds Pretend Turkey Hasn't Invaded
2008-02-22 19:54:00
How do the Kurd's deal with a major Turkish incursion? By denial. If it didn't really happen and was coordinated with Kurdish authorities to chase bandits, then there wasn't an invasion. You can hide 10,000 troops backed by tanks in the mountains. Turkish media warn a larger incursion is being prepared. AlterNet Turkish troops entered northern Iraq to hunt Kurdish separatist rebels after fighter jets struck at their bases, the Turkish army said Friday. Some 10,000 troops penetrated 10 kilometers (six miles) into the autonomous Kurdish northern Iraq, the NTV news channel said. The operation started late Thursday when tanks were reported heading for the frontier and came as the region is in the thick of winter with sub-zero temperatures. The army did not state the number of troops involved but said the incursion followed eight hours of air and artillery strikes on Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) camps across the border on Thursday. "Following this successful offensive, a cross-...
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Obama Threatened and Secret Service Drops Gun Checks
2008-02-22 17:10:00
While Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists publish ominous threats to Obama 's life, reportedly, Secret Service ordered an end to gun checks at Obama rally. Now what is up with this? "The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security," reported the paper's Jack Douglas, Jr. More than 10 days remain until the Texas primary and a key vote for president. "Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department's homeland security and special operations divisions, said the order -- apparently made by the U.S. Secret Service -- was meant to speed up the long lines outside and fill the arena's vacant seats before Obama came on. '"Sure,' said Lawrence, when asked if he was concerned by the great number of people who had gotten into the building without being checked. But, he added, the turnout of more than 17,000 people seemed to be a ...
More About: Election , Discrimination

Israel Bigoted Against Palestinians
2008-02-22 14:13:00
M & C Israel rejects nearly all Palestinian requests for building permits in those areas of the West Bank which are still under its full control, according to a report published Wednesday by Peace Now. In the past seven years, only 91 of 1,624 requests submitted had been granted, the Israeli settlement watchdog said. That means more than 94 per cent of the Palestinian requests have been rejected. Israel also issued demolition orders against 4,993 illegally-built Palestinian houses. One third of them have been executed. By contrast, such demolition orders were issued against 2,900 houses built illegally by Jewish settlers, and less than 7 per cent of these had been executed, Peace Now said. It added in all 18,472 new apartments had been built between 2000 and 2007 in Jewish settlements in 'area C' - those parts of the West Bank which under the 1993 Oslo interim peace accord are still under full Israeli military and civil control. The figures proved Israel was 'clearly and bl...
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The Secret of Obama's Success: He Listens to George Lakoff
2008-02-21 16:31:00
AlterNet: Blogs Why that is has befuddled many Democrats, particularly Clinton followers. How can Obama score so many wins by offering so little -- just hope -- and yet everything -- hope? I can answer that question. It's because Obama gets it. He's been reading the George Lakoff and Rockridge Institute playbook, Thinking Points and skillfully applying it. Lakoff rewrote the progressive strategy with the concept of framing. Had my guy, John Edwards, followed Lakoff's advice and like Obama, gone lighter on the policies and heavier on the values, he might be where Obama is today. Dennis Kucinich would have won a primary or two. John Kerry might be president now. Al Gore would not have needed the Supreme Court in 2000.
More About: Success , The Secret , Election , Secret

Rigged Trials at Gitmo
2008-02-21 15:21:00
The Nation According to Col. Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor for Guantanamo's military commissions, the process has been manipulated by Administration appointees to foreclose the possibility of acquittal. Colonel Davis's criticism of the commissions has been escalating since he resigned in October, telling the Washington Post that he had been pressured by politically appointed senior Defense officials to pursue cases deemed "sexy" and of "high interest" (such as the 9/11 cases now being pursued) in the run-up to the 2008 elections. Davis, once a staunch defender of the commissions process, elaborated on his reasons in a December 10, 2007, Los Angeles Times op-ed. "I concluded that full, fair and open trials were not possible under the current system," he wrote. "I felt that the system had become deeply politicized and that I could no longer do my job effectively." Then, in an interview with The Nation in February after the six Guantánamo detainees were charged, Davis off...
More About: Torture , Gitmo , Trials , Civil Liberties

McCain's Holiday from History in Pakistan: Lies about Obama
2008-02-20 18:45:00
Juan Cole in his Informed Comment takes McCain apart. Senator John McCain could not get the independents out in Wisconsin, and the Republican turnout was lackluster. In politics, failure always produces bluster. McCain spoke after his primary victory in Wisconsin last night, casting himself as a voice of experience in foreign policy. He said things like this: ' I will fight every moment of every day in this campaign to make sure Americans are not deceived by an eloquent but empty call for change that promises no more than a holiday from history . . . Today, political change in Pakistan is occurring that might affect our relationship with a nuclear armed nation that is indispensable to our success in combating al Qaeda in Afghanistan and elsewhere. . . Will the next President have the experience, the judgment experience informs, and the strength of purpose to respond to each of these developments in ways that strengthen our security and advance the global progress of our ideals?...
More About: History , Holiday , Obama , Election

NATO checks Serbs' Kosovo border challenge
2008-02-20 16:30:00
Kosovo has shaped into a classic East/West challenge. Russia , in particular is concerned about insurgencies within. Just how provocative the politicians will be at the expense of the people of Kosovo has yet to be seen. Reuters NATO thwarted overnight a bid by Kosovo Serbs to assert their authority in a northern slice of the newly independent republic, restoring control on the border with Serbia where crowds had burnt down two crossing points. "I just want everybody to be fully aware of my determination to maintain, restore a safe and secure environment wherever in Kosovo," said General Xavier de Marnhac, commander of the NATO-led peacekeeping force, KFOR. He said Kosovan and U.N. authority would be restored at the crossings, known as Gate 1 and Gate 3-1, which would reopen once the destroyed customs and police buildings had been repaired. The test of Western resolve to back up Kosovo's independence with military force came on Tuesday, two days after Pristina declared its sece...
More About: Europe , Central Asia , Kosovo , Nato

The Rise and Fall of the Neocon American Empire
2008-02-19 15:43:00
Thank you George Bush, for squandering America's political and economic capital, and it's bright future, on a useless war in Iraq, a war that will haunt us for many years to come. IPSNEWS.net What a difference five years and an invasion and bungled occupation of Iraq make! References to the Roman Empire at this point are more likely to refer to its decline than to its power -- an observation confirmed even by Donald Kagan, a dean of neo-conservatism and Kennedy?s colleague at Yale, whose sons, Robert and Frederick, have been champions of the Bush Doctrine and the Iraq War. "I?ve argued that not since the Roman Empire has anyone had such extraordinary power as the United States after the Cold War," Kagan told Kitfield. "But all of the elements of our strength are now being challenged, and it?s perfectly possible that we are seeing a relative decline in U.S. power that will prove lasting." Indeed, that possibility has been transformed into a probability, if not a certainty, by a...
More About: American , Foreign Policy , Bush I , Rise

The Nuclear Espionage Media Cover-up
2008-02-18 15:26:00
Hat tip to The Brad Blog. This story smells like Cheney all over. There may be a good reason why the Sibel Edmunds allegations were covered up. I wonder if the Bush Administration ordered a violation of treaty obligations, and very likely a violation of US and International law. Bush could have authorized passing nuclear secrets to Turkey as a counter to Iran and to persuade it to support the invasion of Iraq. But those same sources may have leaked nuclear secrets to Pakistan as well, perhaps deliberately, to buy Musharraf's cooperation in the "War on Terror." Dallas Morning News: Philip Giraldi Most Americans have never heard of Sibel Edmonds, and if the U.S. government has its way, they never will. The former FBI translator turned whistle-blower tells a chilling story of corruption at Washington's highest levels – sale of nuclear secrets, shielding of terrorist suspects, illegal arms transfers, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, espionage. She may be a first-rate fab...
More About: Media , Nuclear , Cover

Woman sues Ohio sheriff's deputy over 'outrageous' strip search
2008-02-15 02:20:00
The Raw Story Hope Steffey's night started with a call to police for help. It ended with her face down, naked, and sobbing on a jail cell floor. Now, the sheriff's deputies from Stark County, Ohio who allegedly used excessive force during a strip search 15 months ago face a federal lawsuit, and recently released video won?t help their case. Steffey's ordeal with the Stark County sheriff's deputies began after her cousin called 9-1-1 claiming Steffey had been assaulted by another one of their cousins. When a Stark County police officer arrived, he asked to see Steffey's driver's license. But instead of handing over her own ID, she mistakenly turned over her dead sister's license, which she contends she keeps in her wallet as a memento. That's when the situation became complicated. "Hope was not treated as a victim," her lawyer told WKYC News. "The officer said to her 'shut up about your dead sister.'" Eventually, Steffey was arrested and taken to the Stark County Jail, ...
More About: Search , Privacy , Woman , Discrimination

Serbia/Russia: Kosovo breakaway 'illegal'
2008-02-14 18:16:00
The issue of Kosovo has received very little press play in the US. But I suspect this issue, and Bush's meddling in Central Asia, is why Putin is pulling away from the West. Russia 's return to the stage as a world petrol power necessarily brings with it a willingness to stand up to the west and their traditional interests. I do believe Bush's actions in Central Asia, promoting pro-western governments was provocative to Putin and helped restart a cold war. Kosovo gives advantage to Putin politically by pointing at the encroaching west. CNN.com Serbia n government officials said Thursday an independent Kosovo would be an illegal "false state" that will never be recognized by Serbia. The flurry of statements from Serbia's prime minister, deputy prime minister, and foreign minister came ahead of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence, which is widely expected to happen in the next few days. "For us, any form of the declaration of the province's independence is illegal," ...
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Valerie Plame Wilson Describes Sibel Edmonds Disclosures as 'Stunning'
2008-02-14 15:13:00
The UK Sunday Times Published a series of three articles releasing information that may have been covered by Sibel Edmonds ' Bush Administration gag order. She has been claiming her gag order was covering up a scandal. Perhaps the UK articles represent the real story, or at least part of it. Plame now calls the Times articles "stunning" and decries the media black out of the story in the US. There is no freedom of the press in the Bush era. The BRAD BLOG Former CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson says the recent disclosures in the UK's Sunday Times concerning the sale of U.S. nuclear secrets to the foreign black market, as aided by high-ranking government officials, are "stunning"... The previously covert agent, who had worked in the agency's counter-proliferation division for years monitoring traffic in the nuclear black market under the guise of a cover company named Brewster Jennings until being outed by Bush Administration officials, was asked about the recent series of ex...
More About: Stunning , Freedom of Information , Plamegate

Both Campaigns Believe It's "Virtually Impossible" for Clinton to Win Most
2008-02-13 17:23:00
Is it over already? At least Fineman from Newsweek thinks so. AlterNet [VIDEO] Last night, during MSNBC's campaign coverage, Newsweek's Howard Fineman told Keith Olbermann that he's spoken to anonymous sources in both the Clinton and Obama campaigns and apparently both believe that it's "virtually impossible" for Hillary to beat Obama in pledged delegates (especially after last night's three blowout victories for Obama in DC, Maryland and Virginia). Which means, the best scenario Clinton can hope for is to keep it close and hope that her superdelegate advantage makes the difference. AlterNet Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.'s non-voting representative in Congress, provided one of the better explanations for this trend in her endorsement of Barack Obama today: I had expected to announce my endorsement much closer to the general election, as I always have done in the past. However this year's primary has raised new issues. As a super delegate, I decided I had to speak up now to...
More About: Election , Campaigns , Impossible , Virtually

Taiwan accesses damage after US unveils Chinese espionage
2008-02-13 15:10:00
In a story right out of the shadow of the new cold wars, four Chinese spies are arrested in the US. Taiwan is accessing the damage. M&C Taiwan said Tuesday it is trying to determine exactly what kind of classified information China may have received after four people were charged in espionage cases in the US that involved the passing of military secrets to the Chinese government. 'Regarding the news that the US has cracked a spy ring, we are taking it seriously. We have formed a taskforce to assess damage and to evaluate security control,' Taiwan's Defence Ministry said in a statement. The suspects arrested in two separate espionage cases Monday included an analyst in the Pentagon's office overseeing foreign military sales, Greg Bergersen, 51, and Dongfan 'Greg' Chung, a 72- year old former Boeing engineer. Bergersen allegedly provided documents detailing planned US military sales to Taiwan to an agent of the Chinese government. He faces 10 years in prison if convicted on ...
More About: Espionage , Damage

The Edwards Factor
2008-02-12 15:10:00
I think it's unlikely Edwards would endorse the "Corporate Democrat" Hillary. But will he stay on the sidelines or endorse Obama. Will Obama offer him the Attorney General job? Edwards would make a hell of an Attorney General. The Nation Clinton rearranged her schedule to meet last week with Edwards in Chapel Hill. She then said while campaigning in Maine that, "There is a lot that John and I have in common... And I intend to ask John Edwards to be part of anything I do.. when I'm in the White House." Clinton does not necessarily expect an Edwards endorsement. She wants him to stay out. Obama wants him in. So watch for veiled references from Obama -- think "Attorney General Edwards" -- about how much he wants to work with the former senator. And when should we expect an endorsement -- or a formal decision to stay on the sidelines? No doubt, there will have to be an Edwards-Obama meeting. But once that happens, expect a decision in short order. Edwards is not meeting with th...
More About: Election , Factor

Obama Sweeps All Weekend's Races; Voting Impairments
2008-02-11 18:52:00
AlterNet With 59% of precincts reporting, MSNBC says Obama beats Clinton in Maine 57% to 42% He was just endorsed by Virginia's governor. "I look forward to being on the ticket with Mark Warner?" Oh, he didn't mean THAT ticket...right? He's calling himself the underdog in Washington ...until ..."something started to happen." We're tired of "being disappointed, let down, hearing promises but have nothing change. Because lobbyists write another check. Or who's up or who's down instead of who matters." Poetically speaking about unemployment, deployment, unauthorized war... wow he's good. How can that sound poetic? Well, he makes it sound poetic. No more "same old Washington games". Turn the page. The west coast to the Gulf Coast to the heart of America said "yes we can". We won in La., Washington, Nebraska, north, south, in between...and we can win in Virginia. The crowd's going nuts, doing the "yes we can" chant...loudly. [..]The Obama campaign submitted an urgent requ...
More About: Election , Voting , Races

Is the U.S. Failing in Afghanistan?
2008-02-11 00:54:00
TIME It was malice in wonderland at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday as Bush Administration envoys insisted things are getting better in Afghanistan , while angry lawmakers from both parties cited facts and figures showing just the opposite. Even the senior Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar, found the Administration's claims wanting. "I'm not sure that we have a plan for Afghanistan," he said. Long seen as the "forgotten war" eclipsed by Iraq in U.S. priorities, Afghanistan is in the Washington spotlight this week with the release of three independent reports concluding that without a change in U.S. policy there, the erstwhile sanctuary of Osama bin Laden would remain a failed state. After spending $25 billion over six years to try to defeat the Taliban, the radical Islamist militia that had been dispersed into the mountains by the initial U.S. invasion is now a growing presence in large parts of the country. The Taliban is now setting off more bomb...

Hot Pursuit Authorized into Iran and Syria
2008-02-06 22:33:00
Informed Comment The Bush administration authorized hot pursuit of Iraq i Baathists into Syria and Iran , according to a just-released document at wikileak. The document also reveals that as late as 2005, the US military authorities were still unaware that the "mobile weapons labs" were a Neocon scam and never existed. (Biological weapons labs require a clean room, difficult to install on a winnebago). The document shows that by 2005, the US military had a de facto truce with the Mahdi Army (a paramilitary whose political party parent actually joined the Iraqi government later that year). It also shows that the Mojahedin-i Khalq terror group engaged in hostile action toward the US forces, but also were granted a truce in 2005. The MEK is an Iranian terror group that has killed civilians inside Iran and was given a base in Iraq by Saddam Hussein. US Neoconservatives have tended to support it and to want to use it to do further terrorism against Iran. The MEK has been defended by Pat...

Russia: An Energy Superpower?
2008-02-01 17:39:00
AlterNet: ForeignPolicy As Vladimir Putin nears the end of his second term as Russia n president, it is clear that energy exports have become a major component of a resurgent Russia's foreign policy. According to the conventional wisdom, Russia's vast resources make it a superpower to be reckoned with. Not only is it a major supplier of natural gas to the states of the former Soviet Union, it sells oil and natural gas to Europe and it has made new contract commitments for both oil and gas to China . Additionally, as the January 2006 cut-off of gas to Ukraine, the January 2007 oil and gas cut-off to Belarus, and Gazprom's threat (again) to Ukraine in the wake of the September 2007 parliamentary elections indicate, Russia is willing to use its resources for political purposes. [..]The January 2006 cut-off of natural gas supplies to Ukraine made headlines. The reporting indicated that Russia was using energy to punish Kyiv for its 2004 Orange Revolution and that Gazprom, the state-o...
More About: Energy , Central Asia

The Best Candidates Never Seem To Win
2008-01-30 18:39:00
Honesty usually doesn't work too well in nationwide politics. Honesty leaves a raw imprint on people. They react strongly, either in support, or against. Edwards walked that line, and lost. A class warrior with a $400 haircut and a $6 million home feels like a misfit. Certainly, Edwards earned his money, and his personal life long mission is honorable and will continue. I still believe he would have made the best President in the running. But it wasn't to be. TIME begins the process of understanding why. "John Edwards didn't really move to the left as much as he began to use the language of class war," said Michael Munger, a political science professor at Duke University. "And that was a tactic designed to appeal to the angry left in Iowa, and the to laid-off factory workers of South Carolina." The strategy at first seemed shrewd: build on Edwards' surprisingly good showing in Iowa in 2004 and make his native South Carolina his firewall while garnering union support. It was de...
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"State Department Official" Involved in Leaking Nuclear Secrets to Pakistan
2008-01-29 15:14:00
Times Online An investigation into the illicit sale of American nuclear secrets was compromised by a senior official in the State Department , a former FBI employee has claimed. The official is said to have tipped off a foreign contact about a bogus CIA company used to investigate the sale of nuclear secrets. The firm, Brewster Jennings & Associates, was a front for Valerie Plame, the former CIA agent. Her public outing two years later in 2003 by White House officials became a cause celebre. The claims that a State Department official blew the investigation into a nuclear smuggling ring have been made by Sibel Edmonds, 38, a former Turkish language translator in the FBI Washington field office. Edmonds had been employed to translate hundreds of hours of intercepted recordings made during a six-year FBI inquiry into the nuclear smuggling ring. She has previously told The Sunday Times she heard evidence that foreign intelligence agents had enlisted US officials to acquire a network ...
More About: Nuclear , Pakistan , Secrets